Heart of Darkness
by Cupid Boy
Summary: The death of a fellow Ranger brings Kimberly Hart back to Angel Grove. Will her return to the ranks of the Rangers cost her everything, including her life? Please R&R!


_**A/N: I don't know where this story came from, nostalgia perhaps. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I've taken a few artistic liberties with some minor facts regarding the Rangers, their families and their lives etc. I haven't changed anyone dramatically just a few things altered here and there to make it fit. The story also involves Trini Kwan, something people may not like considering the loss of the actress who played her. This is in no way meant to offend people, but Trini was my favourite Yellow Ranger and I wanted her to be involved. Don't read if it will upset you.**_

_**Finally, this is not for profit or gain, merely a fan of the original series writing something because I'm feeling inspired. My love of Power Rangers ended when Kim left, although I dabbled with 'In Space' and I finally lost interest once Lost Galaxy was over. Either way, I'll be using characters and series that I am mainly familiar with. Enjoy! Read and Review!**_

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><p>The soft <em>click<em> of her heels on the sidewalk was drowned out by the waters falling from the sky. It hasn't stopped raining in days. In fact, Kimberly Hart was certain that it hadn't stopped raining since the day she'd learned her childhood best friend, Trini Kwan, had died. Rain had poured from the Australian sky that day, and had continued to cry with her on her journey back to America and the place she hadn't seen in years.

Angel Grove. To her sixteen year old self, the bustling city had seemed like the centre of the universe. Its sprawling collection of shopping malls, industrial districts and downtown retail being the hub of the world and everything else was merely spinning around the outside of it. It had taken her a while after leaving to realise that one city really wasn't the be all and end all and even Angel Grove didn't compare to some of the sights she had seen. Perhaps it would have been nice to come back to the place it had all started for her, if only it wasn't to grieve for the loss of a friend.

Kimberly had been in month eight of her global tour, taking a year out of her life after her failed engagement, and a secondment from her position as General Manager of the Global Gymnastics Federation to reassess and just refocus her head. She'd always frowned at that cliché of 'finding yourself' but moving from Europe to Asia and into Australia, she really had wondered where along the way she'd lost sight of who she was. That shrill telephone call in the middle of the night, just after she'd come back into cell range from her ten days in the Australian outback, delivered the earth shattering news and revealed part of the girl she'd left behind. Trini was dead. A fire. Nothing left of her apartment and the funeral had taken place two days ago. They were sorry she couldn't attend, asked her if she needed anything. In a daze, Kimberly had answered no. She didn't need anything, but she had to come home.

The plane rides back to the United States had given her time to reach the depths of sorrow. Trini, the beautiful Vietnamese girl she'd grown up with, gone shopping with, discovered boys with. The warrior woman with a gentle soul and her softly spoken wisdom. The best friend she hadn't seen in years, hadn't spoken to in almost as long yet still held a place in her heart so vast that Kimberly felt the loss as though she had only seen Trini just yesterday. They were best friends, sisters, and joined together by an amazing adventure that had seen them battle evil, defend the innocent and save the world countless times over. They were Power Rangers forever, a bond that could never be broken no matter how far they drifted apart. At least that was what Kimberly had always chosen to believe. Perhaps death was the one thing that even a Ranger couldn't defeat.

Her thoughts were heavy, as was her heart, as Kimberly watched the water role over the black umbrella and cascade in an arc around her. She'd chosen to wear black, even though she wasn't attending a funeral but Trini's parent's house. It seemed right to show her respect in this way, even if she doubted Trini's parents would notice.

The gate easily gave way as she walked up the path to the house. They'd moved from the address they'd lived at during the girls' youth, yet another piece of the _old Kimberly_ that now seemed chipped away and lost forever. Memories of sleep overs and study dates in Trini's bedroom would forever be that now, and Kimberly clung to them as though she were holding Trini to her heart.

Kimberly's hand barely brushed against the stained wooden door when it pulled back to reveal the red eyed ghost of Mrs. Kwan. The two women collapsed into each other's arms, sobbing against one another as Kimberly tightened her grip on the skeletal frame in her arms. She had changed so much, seeming so much older and smaller. The beautiful high cheekbone were sunken, the lips thinner and streaks of silver breaking up the luxurious mane of silky black hair that had always been the envy of every woman in the neighbourhood. This was not the second mother that Kimberly remembered from her a youth, but a woman ruined over the loss of her only daughter. Bitterly, Kimberly wondered what else had been robbed from her stash of memories that connected her to this place and her old life.

She wasn't entirely sure if Mrs. Kwan had helped her inside or the other way around, but Kimberly found herself sat on the couch in Mrs. Kwan's front room, her jet black raincoat hanging in the hallway as a tray of steaming green tea was placed on the table in front of her. Kimberly witnessed the bony fingers of her deceased friend's mother clutching at the pot and unsteadily pouring the liquid into tiny cylindrical cups. The warmth of the cup in Kimberly's hand gave a brief respite from the sorrow, but it didn't come anywhere close to thawing the ice at the centre of her chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered after a while, her gaze focused on the twirling snakes of steam rising from her cup. "I'm sorry I couldn't be here for you…for missing the funeral." Sorry had never seemed like a more ridiculous word that in this moment, but it was all Kimberly had to offer. The fact was she would never lose the guilt of knowing she'd been across the world when her friend had died, that she perhaps could have done _something _to prevent it. More than that, Kimberly would always regret knowing that she had missed the chance to say goodbye to Trini as her friends and family would all have done at the funeral that Kimberly had missed.

"You couldn't help it," Mrs. Kwan responded, blowing gently on her tea. "You were in a different country. You couldn't have known." The accent was the same, American-English with clipped oriental tones but lacking the warmth Kimberly remembered. If she hadn't know the woman was intimately as she did, she would have been forgiven for thinking there was no sincerity in her words.

The former Power Ranger cradled her tea between her hands. "I'm still sorry, Mrs. Kwan." The aged Vietnamese woman smiled sadly, nodding her head as she sank back into her seat, apparently defeated. The house was silent, save the incessant drumming of rain on the rooftop, and silence stretched a chasm between them. Kimberly was the one to bridge it. "How…how did it happen?"

Kimberly wished she didn't have to ask, but she couldn't not know. The circumstances around Trini's death seemed so trivial, so human, that it almost fit together too well. How could a Power Ranger, the original Yellow Ranger and smartest girl Kimberly had ever known be taken by something so ordinary as a house fire?

Mrs. Kwan's face pinched with grief, but she kept the tears back by sheer force of will. "The fire department said it was faulty wiring. It started from the kitchen, and spread through the house." She choked back a sob, sipping her tea for something else to focus on other than her pain. Kimberly waited, hanging between knowing and not wanting to hear any more on what had happened. "They said it moved so quickly through the house that it was the smoke that got to her before the fire spread upstairs."

Kimberly frowned softly, not bothering to catch the tear that rolled down her cheek and fell to the carpeted floor. Smoke inhalation. Fire. It was all so final. "Didn't she have any sort of smoke alarm? Something to detect the fire before it spread?"

It was probably a question that had been asked a dozen times by those brave enough to ask, and Mrs. Kwan didn't seem all that phased by it, no doubt having wondered the same thing herself. "It was supposed to be her new apartment. They were due to be installed the next week…" She trailed off, clearly lost to her devastating thoughts of what might have been had those damn alarms been installed earlier. How cruel life could be, picking the terribly right moment to take someone when they were at their most vulnerable. "It was an old house," Mrs. Kwan offered, Kimberly blinking back from her own thoughts. "Old wiring, needed replacing. It all needed modernising, really. It's why she chose it. Something she could build herself, something that was hers."

Kimberly felt the ghost of a smile touch her lips as she imagined just how excited Trini would have become over a project like that. Ambitious and time consuming, her best friend's slow and steady outlook on life would have given her the patience she needed to transform the broken down structure into a home. Only now she would never get the chance and Trini would never live in it.

Mrs Kwan dabbed at her eyes with a tissue she had pulled from the sleeve of her shirt. The former Pink Ranger noted it was well used, and could probably do with replacing but remained motionless to do so. "There's a few of Trini's things in the back bedroom," she finally offered. "She was in between moving in there and staying here whilst the apartment was being prepared. You can go on up, take a look at what's there. I should really donate it but…" The grieving mother trailed off, clearly disturbed at the thought of giving away her lost daughter's possessions even though it was probably the best course of action. A strained smile painted over her lips. "Anything you like, you may take. I'm sure Trini will be..." Another silence, the older woman clearly pained by using the wrong tense in relation to her deceased daughter. "Trini would have been happy for you to have whatever you like. It's not everything she owned but, whatever it is, it's yours Kimberly."

Without another word, Mrs Kwan was on her feet and wandering out into the hallway, lost in some new private grief that Kimberly didn't feel right witnessing. It felt like a betrayal of her best friend, not being able to do more to comfort her clearly hurting mother, but then what could Kimberly do to try and sooth such a raw loss? She hoped that it was enough that she was here, and willing to help remove some of the items that made living with her daughter's memory painful. It was the best Kimberly could do, and hoped Trini would approve of it, wherever she was now.

It was a long walk up the stairs to the next floor, with the Kimberly stopping on every other step. Her knees betrayed her, agony welling up in her chest and threatening to consume her all over again as she got closer to the next floor. She wasn't sure what it was that was preventing her from just getting up the stairs. Being in a room with Trini's possessions would bring her closer to her friend's memory, maybe even give her a sense of closure that she was previously denied by not being able to attend the funeral. She wanted to say goodbye in a way that was meaningful, and in a way that would reflect their friendship properly. Trini's halfway bedroom would just have to be enough for her now.

The door to the backroom loomed before her, painted in brilliant white and fading easily into the cream walls around it. Kimberly's hand gently grasped the gold patterned door handle and eased it downwards, allowing her to step inside what had perhaps become Trini's final private space.

Dust swirled gently in the air, caught in the murky rays of sunshine that found their way through the pouring rain and into the bedroom. The curtains weren't closed. If Kimberly had to guess, she'd say that the room hadn't been visited in a while. Trini's parents were obviously unable to bring themselves to enter the space, and she couldn't blame them. Everything about it screamed of the personality of the deceased girl, from the beautiful oriental paintings hanging above the bed to the martial arts robes that she always wore in the morning during her work outs.

There were pictures scattered around, some showing images from the past and others more recent that Kimberly didn't know. She smiled at a reflection of herself, all nineties' far side parting and fringe combo and overreliance on the colour pink. She lifted the photo frame from the bedside cabinet and smiled. They were children, back then. At sixteen years of age taking responsibility for the defence of the planet against Rita, Zedd and all the other monsters in the galaxy wanting to ruin their home planet. It was a past only Kimberly, Trini and four other people could truly understand. They had been the first, and all those that came afterwards could never truly understand what it was like to be in the first team of Power Rangers. Now, the Rangers and the rainbow armour were part of everyday life. The world expected the Power Rangers in their guises to always be there and be humanity's best line of defence against the evil that was out there. It was routine, expected even, nothing like it had been for two girls who could never have dreamed of the darkness that existed in the Universe.

Sinking onto the bed, Kimberly placed the photo down and reached for another. It showed Trini more recently, a little older but as delicately beautiful as always. She was leaning against a tree, smiling at something beyond the camera and caught forever in a moment of pure joy. The tips of Kimberly's fingers gently caressed the frozen smile of a friend, a choked sob accompanied by solitary tears that rolled down her cheeks. It wasn't fair to be here and for this beautiful woman be gone. She would never have the chance to know this Trini, having been away for so long that years had gone by without seeing one another in the flesh. Trini had changed, so had Kimberly, but the latter would always be a teenage girl in Kimberly's memory as that's how she had always known her.

Eventually, the tears stopped falling, and Kimberly replaced the photo back where she had picked it up from. She thumbed through a few books and magazines left near to the bed, admired some of the clothes in the closets. Half a house was stored in the bedroom, making Kimberly smile at her friend's eclectic tastes. She had been smiling at some of Trini's old notebooks, ones she had apparently kept from her days in college when her swinging feet connected with something solid pushed beneath the bed. Frowning, she placed the books carefully down beside her and carefully knelt down at the side of the bed to see what it was beneath that had caught her heel.

Kimberly's eyes widened in shock as she recognised the treasure chest she and Trini had bought all those years ago. It had been at a garage sale in the height of summer. Dressed in tees and shorts, they had wandered through Angel Grove two years before the Zordon had found them, enjoying their afternoon as girls that age were supposed to do. A sale from a local family had given them a real find, a treasure chest! It wasn't really anything of the sort, but to their inexperienced eyes the stained cherry oak chest and copper hinges and fastenings seemed more amazing than anything they had ever seen. They'd purchased it together, each taking half the cost and lovingly restored the broken hinges that had seen better days. The soft, violet cushioned interior was carefully restitched and the false bottom made level again by building up one of the corners. It was their treasure chest, spending weeks at either girls' house where they filled it with what would become memories and tokens of their past together.

With a flourish of joy, Kimberly unlocked the lid and eased it back, the contents nearly exploding out from within. Photographs, notes, stuffed animals, jewellery and all manner of items confronted her. A lace ribbon from Kimberly's hair at her first formal dance, the broken jade pendant Trini had picked up at Redwood Bay for a dollar. Everything was still here, making Kimberly cry with happiness. At least something remained that she could connect to, finding solace in the memory of both her younger self and the shared history that the treasure chest held. It was hers, hers and Trini's and was a sign that their friendship had been real and meant something because her friend had kept it all these years.

Smiling sadly, Kimberly brushed at her tears with the back of her hand and carefully reached down to the false bottom. Beneath the surface would be the letters she and Trini used to write each other at weekends. They contained their teenage secrets, hopes for the future and wishes for the kind of boys they were going to meet and fall in love with. There might even be a prediction for the future or two, as the girls had been convinced of the inevitability of their rise to success and wealth in their adult lives.

Kimberly took the bottom out and placed it next to her, smiling to see the letters carefully wrapped and tied in bundles with pink and yellow ribbon, another touch of Trini to signify which letters belonged to whom. It was the red velvet box that surprised Kimberly, her rapidly searching memory unable to place it in her joint history with the deceased girl.

The box was lifted out of the bottom of the case that Kimberly shifted from her lap and onto the bed next to her. It's length spanned the width of both her palms together and something told her that this was important, not least because it was kept in the most secret place of their past.

A deep breath steadied her hand, although it was next to useless as Kimberly nearly dropped the box and its contents after she'd opened it. Five beautiful gold coins, etched with designs of long deceased creatures and the symbols of power for five unlikely heroes from another time. A mastodon. A pterodactyl. A triceratops. A sabre-toothed tiger. A Tyrannosaurus. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. The former Pink Ranger could hardly believe her eyes. It surely wasn't possibly, was it? How could the five Power Coins be here, in this case, beneath Trini's bed of all places? They were long gone, destroyed by Rito Revolto and replaced by the Ninja Power Coins which were late ruined by Zedd and Rita Repulsa. It didn't make sense that the original five would be here now, yet the five discs were there reflecting gold in her startled, honey coloured eyes.

Unable to resist temptation, Kimberly's finger gently brushed over the design of the pterodactyl etched onto one of the coins. That prehistoric bird had become synonymous with her power and a constant companion until the Rangers and indeed Kimberly had moved on to other great powers. Yet here it was in front of her, the original source of the Pink Ranger's power as though she were sixteen years old again and ready to go into battle at a moments notice.

The touch of the coin against her finger made Kimberly recoil, instantly releasing a breathless moan of terror. Gasping for her air, she slapped her hand to her chest, eyes streaming as her thoughts rocketed around in her skull. For just a moment, she had touched something. Dark. Powerful. Evil. It was all consuming, pulling at her mind and connected to her Power Coin. The remnants of that same darkness lingered on the edge of her thoughts, making her body tremble. Something terrible was lurking within her coin, and the memory of the blackness she had touched would not leave her for a while. Still trying to shake it off, Kimberly snapped the lid shut, unwittingly dislodging a letter that had been tucked into the lining along with a shard of glass. Wiping at the tears that leaked from the corners of her eyes, she tried to put the flash of pain out of her mind even as a headache started to bloom at the base of her neck.

Scooping the letter up from the floor, Kimberly inspected the piece of glass and placed it down next to her as her breath hitched upon recognising the handwriting on the letter. That beautiful flowing script could only belong to one person, Trini Kwan.

_My dearest Kim,_

_If you are reading this letter, then it means I am dead. Please, don't be sad for me. I had a wonderful life, filled with adventures, great friends and real love. I go on to the next life at peace with the existence that I had. Unfortunately, it means it is to you that I am bequeathing my mission. I knew you would find this case in our special place and it is in your care that I leave it._

You see in recent weeks, something has felt wrong. The very earth of Angel Grove seems to be crying out in pain, and every night I am plagued by nightmares. I see my Sabre-toothed Tiger in agony, yet I am powerless to save her. After all these years she is calling to me for my help but I cannot go to her. I fear something is wrong and it has to do with our original Powers and the very Morphing Grid.

_These five Power Coins, destroyed or so we have long believed, were the conduits for our powers. To my surprise, I found them after I journeyed to the remains of the Command Centre and the Chamber beneath it. They were stored away, apparently just waiting to be found. I do not know who created them, but something tells me they were not meant to be found. Evil lurks in them now, polluting the remains of the once good Powers of the Rangers and bringing a dark cloud that I cannot seem to escape. I have stolen them away to keep them safe until I can unmask the creator of these coins and the darkness that surrounds them. _

_I hope that I am successful in this, and that none of this will ever reach you half a world away. However I am writing this in case I am unsuccessful in my goals and someone else needs to continue in my stead. My heart is with you, always, and as I leave this task to you know that I will forever be your best friend._

_Be careful Kimberly. Something terrible is coming, something I don't think even the Power Rangers can comprehend. Whatever happens, you must __never__ use your Power Coin for any reason. I fear calling on the power of your pterodactyl would be perilous to both you and I believe the world. Stay safe, and look to our friends for help. _

_Goodbye Kimberly. May the power protect you, always._

_Yours affectionately,  
>Trini.<em>

The words blurred into nothing as Kimberly descended into hysterical cries of anguish and loss. Her friend had stumbled on something terrible, had even made provision in case of her death, and had trusted Kimberly enough to complete the work she had started. It posted so many questions, but in this moment, it was all meaningless in the face of the gaping loss of the kindest soul Kimberly would ever know.

Whatever had happened with these Power Coins, whatever the future held, for now it was enough for Kimberly to grieve the loss of her best friend. Tomorrow she could begin to make sense of the letter as today, exhausted from her travel and the loss of her best friend, Kimberly could only herself to sleep on Trini's bed. She slept fitfully, troubled by disturbing dreams involving a dark precipice and Trini falling over the edge and Kimberly unable to save her. She never woke however, and the retrieved Power Coins tucked safely into the crook of her arm for a level headed examination in the morning.


End file.
